Reading · That's What She Had

I would describe London as delicious, overwhelming, and fun. In that order. I returned from a solo trip to the England’s capital yesterday, and suddenly Hamburg, one of the biggest cities in Germany, feels like a village.

Metro stations are (almost) free of ads to the delight of my nervous system. I don’t get bombarded by the noise of the streets and the bling-bling of billboards. People are outside, but not invading my personal space.

I don’t have to use my elbow to press the bag closer to my body while maintaining an iron grip on my phone at all times. Can you imagine the amount of energy wasted on being this alert whenever outside?

To think that at 20, all of the above would be part of the charm and I would have done ANYTHING to live in London! At 38, on day 3 of non-stop exploring I caught myself thinking how nice it would be to hug a tree. Instead, I came across a coffee shop whose walls and ceiling were covered with projections of a green forest.

I am torn between thinking what a cool idea! and how backwards are our lives that we created a coffee shop with forest projections instead of actually going to a forest?

Don’t get me wrong though: I absolutely loved London and am planning to go back. This is just a bit of rambling from a tired mind (and body). To counter everything I had mentioned above, here’s what I loved most about London: all the food.

Since this was a work trip, I was particular with my choice of restaurants. I had planned to write about traditional British foods, cheap eats in London and Sri Lankan food in London, and so my breakfast, lunch and dinner had to fall into one of these three categories.

I finally tried the full English breakfast: black pudding, beans and all at Regency Cafe.

And another English classic: boiled eggs and soldiers at The Wolseley. Why I had never made it at home is a mystery, but it is all going to change now.

Monmouth coffee shop at Borough Market makes my favorite cup of cappuccino anywhere. I’ve been thinking about this coffee for a whole year since my last trip. It was as good as I remembered.

The tea, though… I have lots to say about tea. First of all, where is the tea? The English have an image of a tea-loving country, yet here’s the choice of tea at a local supermarket.

Not bad, you think? That is before you look closer and realize it’s all tea bags. Loose tea takes up half a shelf.

In case you are new here, this is how I feel about tea bags:

In short: not highly.

Then there are afternoon tea experiences and tea shops. Gorgeous, refined, delicious and extremely expensive. On my last trip to London, I had afternoon tea at Fortnum&Mason, possibly, the most popular spot in the whole world to have high tea. It was everything I dreamed of: the quality of tea (brewed fresh, of course), the selection of dainty sandwiches and petit pastries, the service, the ambience.

So chic, so fancy! But why are the tablecloths creased?

You can think whatever you want of me — that I am spoiled, too demanding, unreasonable, petty — fine by me. But I strongly believe that if I pay a £100 (USD$135) for a meal for one (!), every teeny-tiny detail has to be impeccable, and the creases on the tablecloth were the first thing I saw when I was taken to the table.

This time I decided to try something more “affordable”: a pot of tea with a pastry. It was a “deal” for “only” £25.

The china was beautiful, the selection of tea — the largest I have ever seen.

The tea pot had smudges on it. I didn’t realize I made a face until I looked at the picture hours later.

If you have the audacity to charge £25 for a pot of tea and a pastry, this just can’t happen. All in all, I much prefer drinking tea in Istanbul, for less than one euro per cute tulip-shaped cup (read more on that below).

While I significantly overpaid for tea, I did good by having lunch at the Victoria&Albert Museum cafe. The dining room looked like this!

And my meal cost 10 pounds!

I tried the most amazing cinnamon bun at Kuro,

Victoria sponge cake at Reemies Cakes,

sticky toffee pudding at The George,

and a crème brûlée donut from Bread Ahead! Who knew such a thing even exists? Sinking your teeth into the perfectly shiny crunchy top layer might be even more satisfying than breaking it with a teaspoon.

Speaking of sweets, I also had olive oil baklava ice cream at Big Kid Ice Cream. There were dill pickle and marmite on toast flavors available, but I guess I am not that adventurous.

And lastly, I had so much Sri Lankan food! The one Sri Lankan restaurant we had in Hamburg closed down, so this was my opportunity to eat all the curries, short eats, and string hoppers my heart desired.